Parallels
by Scar-Faced Hundred
Summary: A small boy stands alone, far from home, in the midnight corridors of the Fire Palace. The Fire Lord is hunched over a map in his fire-lit study. Something has got to give. Complete Zutara


**A/N: I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender. :( **

o0o0oOo0o0o

"Hello?"

The child's voice is tremulous and terrified. His query echoes back at him, seemingly reflecting right off of the cold marble walls of the corridor he has inexplicably, impossibly found himself in. In the echoing silence, he feels like the loneliest person in the world.

It is not what he is used to, and he is afraid. Usually, his home is full of light and laughter – the polar opposite of this uninviting midnight hallway. If there is no laughter, then there is gentle, soft, speaking, muted and loving. When there is no speaking, there is yelling and crashes, but the child is not afraid of this. There is always laughter afterwards.

But any way it is looked at, his home was never filled with the oppressive silence smothering him now.

His fear turns to terror, and his slow, cautious walk becomes a sprint. His bare feet slap on the cold floor, and his voice rises in alarm.

"Mother? Father! Hello? Anyone!"

Still the silence mocks him, but the child runs on, his calls turning to shrill shouts. His stomach twists, and his heart constricts.

o0o0oOo0o0o

Not very far away, a tired, sleepless young man looks up from the map before him. He frowns, and listens closely. No, he wasn't imagining it.

"Mother! Mother! _Father!_"

It is a child's voice. The man frowns again. There aren't meant to be any children around here, but it is undeniable. The cries are coming closer. He wonders if this is some kind of trap, but dismisses the notion.

He pushes back his chair from his desk and stands. His joints, used to the squashed, hunched posture, complain momentarily, but the man quickly shakes out the stiffness and reaches for the fire within himself, carefully drawing some out and capturing it gently in his hand. His is just moving away from his cluttered desk to investigate when the cries suddenly become louder, and the pattering of the child's feet screeches to a halt outside the man's room.

o0o0oOo0o0o

From the corridor, the child catches a glimpse of the flickering light of a fire from a doorway. His cries strengthen and he propels himself into the room. Surely, there must be someone here, someone who can comfort him and take him home. As he enters the room, he finds something exponentially better.

"_Father!_" The child utters a wordless shout of joy and leaps to attach himself to the man's knees.

The man looks down in complete and utter shock at the small boy now clinging to his legs for dear life. The child is nearly weeping into the man's breeches, mumbling incomprehensibly.

Still stunned and now a little concerned, the man reaches down to awkwardly pat the boy's dark, feathery hair and try to disentangle himself from the obviously confused and upset child.

Lost for words, the man eventually asks:

"So, uhm, you're lost?"

The child looks up at him adoringly and gives a watery smile, pressing his cheek into the man's leg.

"Not anymore, father."

The man shifts uncomfortably and moves his fiery hand closer to the child's face. He doesn't flinch, just gazes up at the man solemnly as he inspects his features, then pulls back with a few choice curses.

The boy's eyes –unnatural. Bizarre. _Frightening._

The child giggles. "I'm telling mother!" But his strange gaze is still fixed on the man – one eye a bright, flashing amber-gold, the other a clear ocean blue.

The man shakes his head.

"No, no. I'm not your father. My name is Zuko."

The small boy rolls his mismatched eyes. "And my name is Kaizo. I already _know_ your name, father."

He shakes his head again.

"No, I'm not your father. I don't have any children." There is a moment of shocked silence, and Zuko clears his throat awkwardly and offers:

"Would you like me to help find you parents? What is your mother's name?"

Kaizo is looking at him in horror, and his grip on Zuko's legs loosens.

"No, you're my father. You _must_be. You're _just__like__him!_"

Unnerved, Zuko patiently tries again.

"What's your mother's name?"

Kaizo releases Zuko's leg entirely and starts to back away.

"What do you _mean,_'what's my mother's name?'?" His voice climbs a couple of octaves. "Of course you know mother's name! Better than your own! You _love_her! You say so _all__the__time!_"

Zuko shakes his head again, speechless, and makes a gesture of helplessness with the hand not occupied by the quivering flame. He takes a cautious step towards Kaizo, but the child continues to retreat.

"Mother! Mother, where are you? _Mother!_" When it is clear that no response is forthcoming, the boy calls again.

"Mother? Mother! _Katara!__Katara__Katara__Katara!_"

Zuko freezes and looks at the child in shock.

"'Katara'? Your mother's name is _Katara?_"

Memories come flooding back to him, breaking free from where they were so carefully locked away behind a wall in his head. Memories of his life before he ascended to the Burning Throne. Memories of his international chase after the Avatar – and his two companions. Memories of smiling, laughing, blue-eyed girl. Memories of an angry, tempestuous, _amazing_ girl. Her courage, her loyalty. Her life, her death. A Fire Nation illness, one any Firebender child could survive. The beautiful, insane Waterbender, dead before sixteen.

_I'll save you from the pirates._

Zuko closes his eyes and drops the fire, bringing his hands to his face. In the hot, stifling darkness behind his eyes, he hears Kaizo call for his mother and father one more time before there is silence.

He removes his head from his the soothing oblivion of his palms and sees the boy's face, carved in a wooden mask of horror and disbelief, for a moment only before he vanishes.

A universe away, Kaizo wakes up screaming in his bed, wailing at the top of his lungs for his parents.

And within moments, there they are, just as they have always been. Faces bleary and concerned, they rush to his side, the father tall, scarred, and pale-skinned, the mother smaller, darker, and calmer. Yin and Yang. Total opposites, drawn together over their terrified child, stroking his hair and cooing softly, cuddling and soothing.

_You're okay, it's alright, it was just a dream, we love you._

His sobbing turns to quiet hiccupping, and he presses close to the warm and sleepy bodies of his parents and eventually falls asleep.

His parents stay with him, holding him between them and gently rocking him until he is too deeply asleep to dream. Over his head, their eyes meet: one pair a bright, flashing amber-gold, the other a clear ocean blue.

They smile a secret smile and continue to comfort their firstborn, a physical manifestation of impossibility... and their love.

o0o0oOo0o0o

Back in the silence of the marble palace, Zuko stares blankly at the spot where the child had stood only moments ago. Then he kneels on the floor and weeps.

No one hears.

o0o0oOo0o0o


End file.
